Paris (AFP)
The French, Arsene Wenger, director of development at the International Football Association, FIFA, indicated today, Tuesday, the possibility of detecting cases of infiltration “automatically in 2022”, specifically during the World Cup in Qatar, without announcing the methods used in the new technology.
And the former Arsenal coach said during a press conference held in Paris: There is a good chance that cases of offside will be detected automatically in 2022. And Wenger continued, ahead of the arbitration seminars starting from the 20th of this month, where he is considered the “godfather” of it, “I retain confidentiality, but it will be the next developments in arbitration.”
Wenger stressed that FIFA’s endeavors require finding the fastest solutions to contentious situations through the use of technology, noting that some controversial decisions regarding offside cases are sometimes made using the video assistant referee technology “VAR”.
FIFA had announced in June 2020 that it was studying the decision to switch offside arbitration by “developing a semi-automated technology to indicate intrusion, in order to provide the VAR with additional information that would simplify the decision-making process and develop image analysis.”
The schedule for this project is expected to be accelerated in light of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (November 21 – December 18). In March, Wenger proposed to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which is responsible for enacting the laws of the first popular game, to amend the offside rule by excluding cases in which “a part of the body with which an attacker can score” remains in a legal position.
In the same context, Swiss-Italian FIFA President Gianni Infantino considered that this amendment falls within the framework of “making football more attractive”, by promoting offensive play, a more accurate analysis of cases allowed by “VAR”, even if no experiments are programmed. regarding the proposed modifications.
And on holding the World Cup finals every two years instead of four, Wenger confirmed that he was “open” to all suggestions and “understands the reluctance, because there is an emotional side” on this issue.
Opposition voices have risen in the world of football to protest the increasing pace of competition, from the President of the European Football Association of Slovenia Aleksandar Ceferin to the coach of the French national team Didier Deschamps, through the Professional Players Union (FIFPro) and links of fans from all over the world and many parties. FIFA is due to release a full report in November ahead of a “global summit” by the end of the year.
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